COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Eviction author Matthew Desmond advises expanding housing vouchers

by Amy Reinholds

“A problem as big as affordable housing problem needs a big solution,” Matthew Desmond, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, told the audience at the Lory Student Center at Colorado State University on Oct. 10. “Let’s take a solution we already have that is working like the affordable housing voucher program and just expand it to everyone below the poverty line.”

Desmond, a Princeton University professor, and also a MacArthur Fellow “genius grant” recipient, wrote the book after living in Milwaukee, both in a trailer park on the south side and in a boarding house on the north side, following eight families through the process of evictions, in court and in their search for places to live. He learned and told the stories of tenants and landlords, both black and white. His talk at CSU was sponsored by the university and several organizations. The event raised money and awareness for Neighbor to Neighbor, a non-profit in Fort Collins and Loveland that provides a wide range of services from preventing homelessness to rental assistance, housing search programs, and home buyer education.

When families have a Section 8 voucher, which subsidizes their monthly rental costs, data shows they move less often and their kids do better in school, Desmond said. The problem, he said, is that there aren’t enough for all the people who need them. There are lotteries that are only open a few time, and there are long waiting lists for publicly funded affordable housing. “The unlucky majority receive nothing.”

About his idea of expanding vouchers to everyone below the poverty level, he said there are two main questions people ask about this idea. First, would it be a disincentive to work? “There is some data that people would work less, but maybe they would spend more time with their kids,” Desmond said. “But I think the status quo is much more a risk. Think of the brainpower and creativity that we just squander.”

For people who have a high school education or less, income has stayed flat, but the cost of rent has increased, Desmond said. “Under these conditions you don’t need to make a huge mistake to find yourself out on the street.” And when you are evicted, or forced to leave, he described a long list of losses: “You lose your neighborhood. your kids lose their school. Sometimes you lose your stuff. An eviction prevents you from finding another home, including public housing. It can cause job loss.” He said data shows families move to poorer neighborhoods with more crime after an eviction. A woman he wrote about in his book was paying more than 80 percent of her income on rent after an eviction. “Evictions seem to push families deeper into disadvantage.”

The second question Desmond said people ask him about expanding the housing voucher program for all low-income families is if it would be expensive for the American taxpayers. “The bipartisan Princeton Foundation estimated it would cost an additional $22 billion,” he said. But he pointed out that currently the homeowner tax subsidies cost about $40 billion. “It’s an entitlement, too, just not for poor people.”

The reality is much more complicated than “tenants are just lazy, and landlords are just greedy,” Desmond said. “We have to listen to landlords and tenants and understand their perspectives,” Desmond said. He gave an example of the complexity of what the City of Portland found about vouchers – 60 percent of vouchers were returned because tenants could not find landlords who would accept them. “We have to understand why,” Desmond said. “Is the inspection process too onerous? Is the voucher too little in a hot market?”

“This is a bipartisan problem,” Desmond said. “Whatever issue you care about, affordable housing is somehow at the root of it,” he said, bringing up data about how well children do in school, and depression in mothers who have been evicted with their children, showing up at a higher rate two years later. Desmond said that the data also shows that “Most white families in this country own their own home. Most black and latino families in this country do not, because of the legacy of racial discrimination.” And finally housing is connected with hunger and children’s nutrition. “When families do get rental assistance, they do one consistent thing with their money,” Desmond said. “They go to the grocery store.”

“If we don’t fix the housing problem, we won’t be able to fix the other problems,” he said. “This degree of inequality and level of social suffering… This doesn’t have to be us. There’s no ethical code, no holy scripture, that can support what our country has become.”

Desmond and his team’s work atwww.evictionlab.orginclude eviction data from all parts of the country that are available for download. For example, he cited that the state of Colorado averages 50 evictions per day, which is more than our neighboring states of Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska.

The housing crisis is affecting rural and suburban areas, he said, as well as expensive communities in the north and poor communities in the south. “And it’s a young person’s issue whether you want it to be or not,” he said, describing how many young people can’t afford to move out of their parents’ homes after college.

After all this, does it sound bleak? Desmond also related success stories. “There are organizations around this country doing good work,” he said, and his organizationjustshelter.orgaims to amplify that work.

He said some cities have held votes that passed raising taxes, like Seattle, where $270 million will be spent on creating affordable housing over seven years. He also said that in Laurence Kansas, “a bunch of nuns got together and got a sales tax passed” for affordable housing.

Desmond also cited innovations in the court system for evictions. In Cleveland, the judge in eviction court asks the tenants why they didn’t pay their landlords the $500 or whatever amount is owed, and tenants often answer because they lost their job or had unforeseen medical expenses. Full-time social workers in the courtroom match up services to help the tenants, and a situation is worked out so the landlords go home with some money that day, and the eviction is avoided.

And local laws have changed. Desmond said that in Milwaukee, 80 percent of domestic violence calls resulted in evictions for the women who called police because of a “nuisance” code where police notified landlords when a property had a certain number of repeat police reports. But after Desmond and his team worked with the police department, the laws and the policy changed so that domestic violence was not counted in the nuisance reporting for addresses, and the survivors of domestic violence didn’t also face eviction.

“The issue we could all consider is how much skin in the game do we have?” Desmond said. He described a proposal in Houston that could have built a larger number of homes in a poorer neighborhood, although HUD told the city they shouldn’t segregate low-income families in the poor part of town. The city looked at building affordable housing in a middle-class neighborhood where tenants could benefit from being near well funded schools and job opportunities, but because of building and land costs, fewer homes could be built there. And then residents of that middle-class neighborhood successfully campaigned their elected officials not to build affordable housing there because they didn’t want it near them.

Desmond summed up the quandary of choices. What would have been better – more rental homes in a poor neighborhood away from well funded schools and job opportunities, fewer homes where there were more opportunities for a better quality of life, or what actually happened – no affordable homes were built at all?

“Our safe neighborhoods are not just better, they are intimately tied to the neighborhoods with lower quality housing and schools,” he said. “Another way to look at it is there are winners and losers, and there are winners because there are losers. Are we OK with that?”

He noted that the landlord of the trailer park in Milwaukee where he lived while writing the book made $400,000 a year.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2015-April 2016. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995. For a history, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on her blog at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact her directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

End-of-summer reading list

by Amy Reinholds

As Labor Day approaches, did you finish all your summer reading? Or are you looking for some fall books to expand your mind as school starts? I’ve updated an affordable-housing-related reading list from last summer with some new books, some that I’ve read, and some that I hope to read. Comments and suggestions are welcome at the email address listed at the end of the column. I’d love to hear your recommendations.

The Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It, by Richard Reeves. I first heard the author interviewed on the On Point NPR podcast, and this summer, I had a chance to read his book. It’s so common for Americans to view the top 1 percent of the wealthiest people in our country as the main problem, but Reeves presents statistics that show that it’s actually the richest 20 percent of American society that is splitting society into the upper middle class and everyone else. The upper middle class – families with professional jobs – see society as merit-based, but they use every tool available to preserve the economic future of their own children, often at the expense of other people’s children. Reeves, who reveals he is a member of the upper middle class, discusses exclusionary zoning, college savings plans and admissions policies, and other local and federal policies that help the upper middle class hoard the American Dream for themselves and their own families.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong about the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund. I learned that Bill Gates is giving away copies of this book to all 2018 college graduates. He said the book describes ten instincts that keep us from seeing the world factfully, and then gives practical advice on how to overcome our biases. The instincts include fear (paying more attention to what scares us), size (being impressed by standalone numbers without comparison and context), and gap (expecting extreme differences, when most people fall somewhere in between). I’m looking forward to reading this book and learning what I can from it, even if I learn that I’m wrong.

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein. According to Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, there is a clear history of local, state, and federal housing policies mandating housing segregation based on race. The book shows that actions of the Federal Housing Administration, established in 1934, increased segregation, and it discusses the lasting effects of those actions on American society today.

This column is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing after the September 2013 flood disaster in Lyons. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com. The Town of Lyons lost about 76 to 94 flood-destroyed homes, and a 2015 proposal for using part of Bohn Park to build subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 homes) was rejected in a town vote, 614 to 498. Some subsidized affordable rentals have been proposed in the past year. But so far, the only post-flood, permanently affordable housing actually in the construction phase is at 112 Park Street where Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley is building three duplexes (a total of six, for-sale homes) on land the non-profit purchased at the end of 2016. To volunteer or donate, go to www.stvrainhabitat.org. For a history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on my blog at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com.

Like this:

Originally published in the June 22, 2017, edition of the Lyons Recorder. An updated version was published in the August 3, 2017 edition.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Summer reading list

by Amy Reinholds

Want some relaxing beach or riverside reading this summer? I like books that entertain but also help me learn about our society, step inside someone else’s shoes, and inspire me with approaches that work.

So here is my affordable-housing-related summer reading list. Comments and suggestions are welcome at the email address listed at the end of the column.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond. When I was at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado this spring, many people were talking about Hillbilly Elegy, but one of the presenters suggested that Evicted is a top-notch book and recommended it for the conference discussion book for next year. I just started reading it and was struck by the detailed and succinct descriptions of both tenants and landlords in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I feel like the people Desmond depicts are family or friends I visit with across a kitchen table or sit next to in their cars as they drive to collect rent. Desmond’s writing transports the reader to the cold, snowy neighborhoods, into the lives of people struggling to make a living.

Chief Left Hand, by Margaret Coel. As the price of real estate skyrockets in the Lyons area, do you ever wonder about people who lived on the land before us? Many of us heard of “Chief Niwot’s Curse” when we first came to Boulder County, like I did when I was an intern at the Boulder Daily Camera, visiting from Illinois in 1991. It was rumored he said the beauty of the area causes you to return and never leave (although after reading this book I found there is no evidence he said these words). Many of us do not know any more about Chief Niwot (which means Chief Left Hand, translated to English) and the Southern Arapaho and other native people who lived in the area. I wanted to read this book ever since I heard Boulder libraries had selected it for a community-wide book discussion a few years ago. The book describes rivers including the north and south St. Vrain, and even mentions an area of present day Lyons. Follow the travels of tribes across the landscape now covered by our businesses, highways, and suburban neighborhoods. Gain understanding into the heartbreaking story of how European-American settlers moving west – seeking their own better way of life – affected the land, the animals, and the native people of Colorado. The stories of settlers, military troops, government officials, gold-seekers, and multiple Native American tribes are intertwined.

Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, Volume I: History and Contributions and Volume II: Lives and Legacies, by Marjorie K. McIntosh. Still thinking about the people who lived on this land before we did, there are many books about immigrants who moved to the West. I’m interested in new books by Marjorie McIntosh, a retired CU professor, about people from Southern Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico, and Latin America who moved to Boulder County from 1900 to 1980. Her work includes stories and oral history from area families, some interviewed by their family’s younger generations. The Lyons Redstone Museum hopes to get Marjorie McIntosh and the Boulder County Latino Project to speak at the museum in the future. I just got both volumes and am looking forward to reading at least one before an event is scheduled in Lyons.

Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Natasha Trethewey. This book is also on my wish list. Those of us who lived through the Lyons 2013 flood might find some common ground with smaller communities who went through Hurricane Katrina, experiencing loss and the long journey to recovery.

And how about a summer listening list, a soundtrack to accompany your reading? Mix and match the songs in this playlist with any of the books, and add your own favorite songs.

What books and music do you recommend? I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas.

This column is a weekly commentary (opinion column) in the Lyons Recorder about affordable housing. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @ hotmail.com. For a history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns from both Lyons-area newspapers posted on my blog atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com.

The Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including the 16 homes in the Foothills Mobile Home Park) and to the changed use of the Riverbend Mobile Home Park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). In March 2015, a proposal for subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) on five to seven acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498 by Town of Lyons voters in a special election. At the end of 2016, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley purchased six residential lots in Lyons to build three permanently affordable duplexes.

Solving big problems by building local community

by Amy Reinholds

Since November, several people have shared stories with me about being disheartened after the presidential election but then motivated to take action to help make the country and the world a better place. The November 2016 national election was not the first time I felt discouraged by election results and a campaign where falsehoods were presented as facts. The most recent time I felt like this was in March 2015 after a post-flood local Town of Lyons special election, when a proposal for subsidized, affordable Boulder County Housing Authority rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) in 5-7 acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498.

The good news? When people see problems aren’t solved in an election, they get to work addressing problems in other ways. After the March 2015 election, as an anecdote to what is now called “fake news,” I startedwriting monthly columns in the Lyons Recorder and other local papers, and blogging atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. And I got involved with more groups looking for solutions for affordable housing.

After the November 2016 election, many Americans, including several Lyons area residents, are inspired to volunteer and organize to protect not only the health of the land, but also a living wage for workers, and the well-being of marginalized neighbors – to make America a kinder place. A local group in the Lyons community has formed with the following mission statement: “Colorado Conscious Action protects human rights and our environment through citizen engagement, education, and empowerment. We value tolerance, respect, and diversity, and bring conscious voice and action in support of justice for all.” With this new movement, I’m now in the company of some Lyons community members who campaigned or voted on the opposite side of the local March 2015 special election about affordable housing in Bohn Park. It’s an opportunity for me to listen and learn about others’ views and what brings us together.

I’m grateful for the positive guidance in Sarah van Gelder’s new book “The Revolution Where You Live.” Now available at the Lyons Regional Library, the inspiring book gives examples of communities that are solving big problems locally at a grassroots level, places she visited on a 12,000 mile trip across the country in August-December 2015. You can ask for it next time you visit our local library in Lyons, reserve it atlyons.catalog.aspencat.info/Record/898027, or buy your own copy atrevolutionwhereyoulive.org.

The author traveled to 18 states, visiting American Indian reservations, large industrial cities, and small towns. She tells the stories of communities that stopped coal mining and fracking, and found new economies instead, and communities both rural and urban that created farming cooperatives and worker-owned businesses after corporate economies failed. Other communities she visited were promoting healing through restorative justice, healthy pregnancies, and reconciliation from a legacy of racism.

She observed five strategies that worked: building bridges between people who are separated, reconnecting to a community’s ecological home, rebuilding the local economy, building power, and creating spaces for healing, creativity, and spirit.

“Revolutionaries of the past have looked for something grand, something more important than community-level change,” van Gelder writes. “But change that starts from the bottom up is more like evolution, drawing on the full complexity of who we are. That complexity is possible in the rich networks of interaction with people that happens at the local level. Face-to-face, we are less likely to stereotype each other or resort to oversimplified ideologies.”

The book includes a list of “101 Ways to Reclaim Local Power,” a valuable resource. Here are some of my favorites:

Learn about the original people whose land you live on, acknowledge them, and share their stories.

Find out who in your community is not free (such as buried in debt, in prison), and support their vision of liberation, or at least help them connect.

Hold celebrations featuring diverse foods, music, dance, and art from cultures and traditions that make up your community.

Recognize that traumatized people need to define for themselves what they require to heal, and they don’t need to be second-guessed or “helped.”

Encourage retiring business owners to sell their businesses to their workers, and help the workers form cooperatives.

Crunch local government data on the affects of policies on the well-being of various groups of people, the environment, and the community as a whole, and share with journalists and the public.

Learn about police practices in your community: Are people of color or immigrants disproportionately stopped, arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced? Are police confiscating property, or is the inability to pay fines resulting in extended prison time? What is the mechanism for civilian oversight?

With your neighbors, prepare for natural disasters and other emergencies. Structure plans around the most vulnerable.

Sponsor election debates. The people who are most marginalized should moderate and ask the most questions.

Hold regular shared meals (in parks, community centers, or churches) that are free, so people who are hungry can participate without shame.

After the September 2013 flood, the Town of Lyons lost a total of about 70 flood-destroyed homes to both the federal buyout programs (including one buy out of a mobile home park) and to the changed use of a second mobile home park property to an event venue (rezoned for commercial use). At the end of 2016, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley purchased six residential lots to build three permanently affordable duplexes.

For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns posted on my blog atlyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. This column is a weekly commentary (opinion column) about affordable housing in the Lyons Recorder. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

COMMENTARY: What’s the fix for affordable housing in Lyons?

What I’ve learned in the three years since the flood

By Amy ReinholdsRedstone Review

LYONS – I started writing this “What’s the fix for affordable housing in Lyons?” column in early 2015, after a majority of Town of Lyons voters rejected a proposal for affordable housing in part of Bohn Park. For the three-year anniversary of the flooding that permanently changed our town, I’m thinking about what affordable housing initiatives our community has pursued since the flood, and what I have learned in the past three years. For everyone in the Lyons community, I wish you the best in rebuilding, focusing on your future, and reflecting on the past of our resilient community.

Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned in the past three years since the flood:

1.) Affordable housing takes a long time, and it’s not easy. But nothing happens at all if no one tries in the first place, or if no one perseveres.

3.) As part of human nature, people are naturally self-centered. And in our time-crunched society, people often prioritize attending town meetings or volunteering their time only for issues that affect them personally. But under certain circumstances, we do reach out beyond ourselves to help our neighbors, as we saw an overwhelming majority of our community and visitors do in the immediate aftermath of the flood.

4.) “Lead, follow, or get out of the way!” I saw this motto on a plaque at an event honoring LaVern Johnson, who has devoted decades to serving on Town of Lyons boards and commissions. Related to the previous point, there’s a natural tendency to proclaim that something needs to get done (like affordable housing), but it is someone else’s job. We naturally want to blame others when events don’t unfold the way we think they should. Instead, I prefer the approach that people who are passionate about initiatives should take the lead, and those who aren’t willing to devote the time and energy should accept the leaders who step forward. There’s always room for others debating the direction to sit at the table, but you have to be willing to devote at least equal time and energy – and be willing to actually sit in a chair at the same table with the leaders.

5.) Each person was affected uniquely in Lyons by the flood. We can be emotionally tied to our neighbors’ struggles, and we can join together in support groups for moving through common challenges. But we will never truly walk in our neighbors’ boots.

6.) Similarly, each person has a unique perspective on who to trust and distrust. What makes sense to me about the levels of trustworthiness of federal, state, county, and town government officials or staff, those with authority like professors or heads of religious organizations, or big or small corporations and business owners, isn’t the same as what other neighbors think.

7.) As a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission, I’ve learned that there is a significant financial need in Lyons. Increasing housing costs only make it more difficult for a family to stretch a budget. An estimated 25%-30% of Lyons-area residents rely on some form of assistance from external agencies to have their basic needs met, based on data from the Lyons Emergency Assistance Fund (LEAF), and the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. About 10%-15% of Lyons kids qualify for free/reduced school lunches (less than $44,000 annual income for a family of four), and it takes $75,906 for a family of four in our county to be “self-sufficient” (not require assistance from external agencies, such as social services, nonprofits, or churches).

8.) Finally, another human nature observation: We all want to feel good about doing something. Some of us crave affirmation, and some of us like to do good in secret, or we fall somewhere in between. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, my employer offered an opportunity to donate through our paychecks to specific relief funds that helped in New Orleans, and I continued donating through paychecks each year to organizations I learned about like the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity. Then in 2013, I saw those organizations come to help Lyons, and I met more like Team Rubicon and Calvary Relief. Although it sounds gloomy, there is always going to be another natural disaster somewhere, whether the New Jersey coast, the Gulf Coast, Nepal, Oklahoma, Japan, Mexico, Texas, India, South Carolina, California, Louisiana, or somewhere else. I urge you to regularly donate to organizations you have seen help in Lyons, so they are ready to deploy wherever the next disaster hits.

Keep following my columns in both Lyons papers for news about accomplishments to increase affordable housing stock in Lyons after the 2013 floods. For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns posted on my blog at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. All town meetings of the elected Lyons Board of Trustees and appointed, volunteer town boards and commissions are open to the public and posted on the town calendar at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2015-April 2016. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Three years since the flood

by Amy Reinholds

I started writing this “What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?” column in early 2015, after a majority of Town of Lyons voters rejected a proposal for affordable housing in part of Bohn Park. For the three-year anniversary of the flooding that permanently changed our town, I’ve collected a summary of what affordable housing initiatives our community has pursued since the flood, and a summary of what I have learned in the past three years. For everyone in the Lyons community, I wish you the best in rebuilding, focusing on your future, and reflecting on the past of our resilient community.

Here’s the status of possible post-flood affordable housing initiatives that have been proposed in Lyons in the past three years since the flood:

Before the former Board of Trustees ended their term on April 18, 2016, they unanimously approved an Affordable Housing Resolution that specifies a goal of 10% affordable housing stock in Lyons with a list of possible housing policies and incentives that future boards can use to accomplish that goal. The current Board of Trustees directed the Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC), the Utilities and Engineering Board, and Town Staff to determine proposals for implementing policies that encourage affordable housing.

On July 5, 2016, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved final rezoning and subdivision steps to allow 6 residential lots at 2nd and Park to be sold to Habitat for Humanity of the St Vrain Valley. The 6 lots for 3 duplexes can be sold to Habitat for Humanity after the plat is recorded, and the former bank building will remain on a commercial lot. Habitat for Humanity will complete the required subdivision improvements for the residential lots, planning to begin these improvements after closing on purchasing the lots from landowners Downtown Lyons Development, LLC. In June 2015, Craig Ferguson purchased the 0.76-acre parcel from Valley Bank, and the previous Board of Trustees voted unanimously to waive water and sewer connection fees that they have control over for the proposed Habitat for Humanity homes. The total of about $173,500 in savings will help Habitat for Humanity meet its permitting and fees budget, keeping mortgages down to about $150,000 for homeowners. Habitat for Humanity acts as a builder and a lender of no-interest loans for homeowners.

In recent months, the PCDC and Town Planning Staff, directed by the current Board of Trustees are focusing on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and rental policies, a possible free-market approach to increase the number of initially lower-priced rentals for people who work in town. If you are a landlord or vacation rental host in Lyons town limits, or want to be one, make sure to attend the PCDC public hearing next Monday, Sept. 12, at 7-9 p.m. at Lyons Town Hall, where the public has a chance to comment and help shape policy for how ADUs can be built and used in single-family residential lots in Lyons town limits. For more details, see https://lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com/2016/09/01/public-can-comment-about-adus-at-sept-12-planning-commission-meeting/.

A proposal for subsidized affordable housing rentals and some Habitat for Humanity for-sale affordable homes (a total of 50-70 units) in 5-7 acres of Bohn Park was voted down 614 to 498 in a March 24, 2015, special election mail ballot, an attempt at post-flood housing recovery after 14 months of work by the Lyons Housing Recovery Task force and hired planning consultants and the Lyons Housing Collaborative. The Boulder County Housing Authority (funded by our county tax dollars) continues to manage three other rental properties in Lyons that have long waiting lists: 8 apartments at Bloomfield Place, 12 apartments at Walter Self Senior Housing, and 6 apartments at Mountain Gate.

At the end of 2015, the Town of Lyons submitted a proposal to the National Disaster Resilience Competition, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that included affordable housing and a safe haven community center, and the Town entered into option-to-buy contract with the City of Longmont for the former Longmont water treatment land on the north and south sides of Hwy 66. Lyons received the disappointing news in January 2016 that the competition didn’t award any funds to the State of Colorado, but other funding might be found. In March and April of 2016, the Lyons community participated in the Eastern Corridor Primary Planning Area planning process, providing input on future land use in that area, whenever future landowners apply to annex to Lyons. Affordable housing, senior housing, small cottages, and mixed residential, business, and retail use were some of the land uses that the public strongly supported for the Eastern Corridor. In July 2016, trustees said results of a survey showed community support for affordable housing in the Eastern Corridor with 65% of respondents saying that affordable housing was “essential” or “very important.” They saw it as a positive endorsement of moving forward if the opportunity presented itself to have the Town of Lyons buy and annex a parcel in the Eastern Corridor. At the Sept. 6, 2016, Board of Trustees meeting, the trustees and Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen talked about options for possibly using parts of the northern parcel of the former water treatment plant as a site for the Lyons Public Works building, because FEMA has determined that the temporary location at the Vasquez stone yard does not meet requirements for a permanent location. Other options discussed were a possibility of Colorado Department of Transportation moving out to a part of the former water treatment plant site, maybe swapping land it currently owns near Eagle Canyon that could become residential.

Simonsen also told the Board of Trustees at the Sept. 6 meeting that in the last few weeks, two separate groups have come to her saying they would like to build permanently affordable housing in Lyons and leverage $4 million in federal disaster recovery funds that will be available. The groups are considering buying some privately owned parcels in the Eastern Corridor and elsewhere. The Board of Trustees directed her to meet with the groups to understand the proposals and bring updates to a future meeting.

Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned in the past three years since the flood:

Affordable housing takes a long time, and it’s not easy. But nothing happens at all if no one tries in the first place, or if no one perseveres.

We can’t rely on Facebook posts for factual information. Like accepting rumors heard on the street, believing Facebook posts at face value causes misinformation and strife.

As part of human nature, people are naturally self-centered. And in our time-crunched society, people often prioritize attending town meetings or volunteering their time only for issues that affect them personally. But under certain circumstances, we do reach out beyond ourselves to help our neighbors, as we saw an overwhelming majority of our community and visitors do in the immediate aftermath of the flood.

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way!” I saw this motto on a plaque at an event honoring LaVern Johnson, who has devoted decades to serving on Town of Lyons boards and commissions. Related to the previous point, there’s a natural tendency to proclaim that something needs to get done (like affordable housing), but it is someone else’s job. We naturally want to blame others when events don’t unfold the way we think they should. Instead, I prefer the approach that people who are passionate about initiatives should take the lead, and those who aren’t willing to devote the time and energy should accept the leaders who step forward. There’s always room for others debating the direction to sit at the table, but you have to be willing to devote at least equal time and energy – and be willing to actually sit in a chair at the same table with the leaders.

Each person was affected uniquely in Lyons by the flood. We can be emotionally tied to our neighbors’ struggles, and we can join together in support groups for moving through common challenges. But we will never truly walk in our neighbors’ boots.

Similarly, each person has a unique perspective on who to trust and distrust. What makes sense to me about the levels of trustworthiness of federal, state, county, and town government officials or staff, those with authority like professors or heads of religious organizations, or big or small corporations and business owners, isn’t the same as what other neighbors think.

As a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission, I’ve learned that there is a significant financial need in Lyons. Increasing housing costs only make it more difficult for a family to stretch a budget. An estimated 25% -30% of Lyons-area residents rely on some form of assistance from external agencies to have their basic needs met, based on data from the Lyons Emergency Assistance Fund (LEAF), and the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. About 10%-15% of Lyons kids qualify for free/reduced school lunches (less than $44,000 annual income for a family of four), and it takes $75,906 for a family of four in our county to be “self-sufficient” (not require assistance from external agencies, such as social services, nonprofits, or churches).

Finally, another human nature observation: We all want to feel good about doing something. Some of us crave affirmation, and some of us like to do good in secret, or we fall somewhere in between. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, my employer offered an opportunity to donate through our paychecks to specific relief funds that helped in New Orleans, and I continued donating through paychecks each year to organizations I learned about like the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity. Then in 2013, I saw those organizations come to help Lyons, and I met more like Team Rubicon and Calvary Relief. Although it sounds gloomy, there is always going to be another natural disaster somewhere, whether the New Jersey coast, the Gulf Coast, Nepal, Oklahoma, Japan, Mexico, Texas, India, South Carolina, California, Louisiana, or somewhere else. I urge you to regularly donate to organizations you have seen help in Lyons, so they are ready to deploy wherever the next disaster hits.

For history of post-flood efforts for affordable housing in Lyons, you can read previous columns posted on my blog at https://lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. All town meetings of the elected Lyons Board of Trustees and appointed, volunteer town boards and commissions are open to the public and posted on the town calendar at www.townoflyons.com/calendar.aspx. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee from 2015-2016. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

COMMENTARY: What’s the future of affordable housing in Lyons?

Media and music messages about Lyons

by Amy Reinholds

No news on new affordable housing this past week – no meetings were held. However, a few thoughts about media and music are on my mind.

Ever since the flood, my senses are heightened about media coverage about our town – what accurately captured our varied experiences in town, and what misrepresented our experiences (whether accidentally or with an agenda). I saved favorite links to quality news coverage to pass on to family and friends outside of town, and I read other stories that I hoped would fade into obscurity because they were misleading or incorrect. Often the news media accounts about Lyons that I find on my own or see people share on Facebook are mixed: they capture the heart and sentiment of our experience but get some of the facts wrong.

Sometimes writers for news outlets look for conflict or someone to blame in their stories. The difficulties faced in Lyons by our neighbors who lost their homes, whether they owned or rented them, and the barriers to affordable replacement housing were ripe for writers looking for conflict. It can almost be a form or disaster tourism when people who don’t live in Lyons cover our troubles.

Often, things are missed because the people writing the stories don’t live here.

But instead of conflict or blame, I’m asking everyone, whether you are readers or writers of stories about Lyons (or listeners to gossip about Lyons) to think about responsibility. And locals don’t get out of this responsibility, either! Of course serious journalists should be committed to responsibility. But we all have responsibility to consider whether the words are valid, whether the information is correct, whether it is worth passing on to others. In general, if I read something in publications and I haven’t personally talked to the people who were quoted, I usually don’t rely on it as an accurate account of what happened.

A recent Daily Camera article that I read was peppered with minor inaccuracies, which I identified from my own knowledge of past events and doing a little research. It was one of those links I wished people wouldn’t have posted on Facebook. But something surprising happened.

The comments responding to the post didn’t focus on conflict, but they were all heartfelt statements in support of people whose homes were destroyed. Positive posts on Facebook! I was relieved and encouraged. Sometimes people just respond from the heart.

That brings me to the music discussion. Bonnie Sims, a friend who is part of my extended “band family” (my husband plays in her band), wrote a song called Lyonstown that speaks to me in a way that printed words and Facebook posts don’t. You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxzh-B9ya6U .

I’ll let the music speak for itself. The lyrics that touch you might be different than the ones that speak to me, but when I see you around town, we can talk about it.

Keep following my columns in both Lyons papers for updates about any accomplishments to increase affordable housing stock in Lyons. The next housing committee meeting is March 2, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Town Hall Annex (behind the Barking Dog Cafe). All housing committee meetings are open to the public and published on the Town of Lyons calendar at www.townoflyons.com. For background and history on the special housing committee, including how it started, you can read previous columns at lyonscoloradonews.wordpress.com. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this column, please contact me directly at areinholds @hotmail.com.

Amy Reinholds served on the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and serves as a liaison to the special housing committee. She has lived in Lyons for 12 years and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.

Like this:

Published in the August 13, 2014, edition of the Redstone Review, a retrospective of the one-year flood anniversary

This time the news is about us…

By Amy Reinholds

The first call on Thursday morning of September 12, 2013, was from our friend in Nederland who wanted to know if we were OK. “Yeah, we just got up. We’re trying to get our internet connection working. I hope I don’t have to drive into work today.”

“I don’t think you’ll be able to drive into work,” she said. “It sounds really bad.” I told her how we had heard the blaring cell phone notifications after we went to bed and had groggily turned off our phones, thinking that people who lived near the river and up the canyon would be watching the water, and everyone would be safe. Later, I learned we had slept through the town siren. “We’ll keep you updated,” I told my friend. “Thanks for checking on us.”

After I hung up, I started to get breakfast and sat at the computer, logging into my work email, and seeing what info I could find about Lyons on the internet.

The phone rang again, and Caleb answered. It was a friend who asked if he and his girlfriend and their dog could come stay at our house. How was our place? Did we have room? They had been up all night after packing up all their belongings, as much as they could fit in their two cars, from their rented house on Evans Street. They drove up to Longs Peak Drive, but were staying in a house already filled with a dozen or so people, children, and pets. Caleb told him that were were fine on Reese Street and they should come over. We had a guest room for them, and we would keep our two cats in the basement.

That’s how our day started. When waking up the next two mornings we were in town, my first thoughts were about what it would be like if the rivers hadn’t overflowed and water rushed through our town. After taking a much needed nap on Thursday afternoon, our friends staying with us said they had hoped it was all a dream. Some other friends who came by that afternoon and napped on the sofa felt the same way. Water was flowing into their basement, but they had gotten all the valueable recording studio equipment out the night before by staying up all night. What if we could just get up, stretch, rub our eyes, and it turned out to be just another ordinary morning where we needed to make coffee and only worry about things like work and a daily routine?

I looked back at email updates that I sent coworkers, friends, and family who lived outside Colorado, trying to convey what it was like in Lyons.

A note I sent my managers on September 12, when I continued to work from home:

I am OK, but we are seeing news on the internet of a lot of damage in my area. I live in Lyons, and friends who live near the St. Vrain river evacuated and are staying at my house. Right now there are no open roads out of Lyons, but we have power (and fairly stable internet) and are safe and dry.

On Sept 13, we lost all utilities and internet, but I was able to get a text through to my coworker, who sent this email:

I received a text message from Amy R. asking me to relay an update…. She is doing OK but has no electricity or internet and only spotty cell coverage. It might be a few days before they can leave her town by car – right now only the National Guard is transporting people out as needed for emergency situations. They are hoping to find out more information over the next few days.

On September 16, 2013:

Caleb and I live on a hill in Lyons so had no water damage or flooding issues on our property. We hosted some other friends who live near the St Vrain river for two nights. We had no issues but all utilities were cut off Friday for various reasons. On Saturday, we safely drove out of Lyons with our two cats and are staying at Caleb’s coworker’s house in north Longmont, a neighborhood that has not been affected by flooding. We have access to all utilities again.

The one road from the Colorado front range in and out of Lyons is open, but FEMA, the national guard, and emergency services are using it for evacuations further up in the mountains, for people in the mountain communities who have been much more isolated than those of us in the town of Lyons. We will hear more in the upcoming days about estimates for when those of us with no flood damage can return to our homes, and when basic utilities will be back up in Lyons.

Caleb works for Grace Design, a small recording studio equipment company that is just on the eastern edge of Lyons, and there is a lot of mud to clean up on the first floor, but no major damages. We will be helping out there and checking in at the evacuation center for updates and to see how else we can help.

It’s hard to get a handle on the widespread affect of the flooding in Colorado. This time the news is about us… our communities. Thx for your thoughts and prayers. Tell everyone we are well.

An update on September 19, 2013:

We are very grateful, and at the same time emotionally tied to the plight of friends and neighbors. Each household was affected very uniquely in Lyons, and across the whole state.

Lyons Area Aerial footage from Saturday 9/14: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvqKghIeabUWhen the plane zooms out at about 1:02, you can see our neighborhood, high and dry.At about 1:10, where there looks like a big lake, that is Planet Bluegrass, where several music festivals are held every year.

Here’s some data on the widespread flooding in Colorado as of early this week (it might be updated):SCOPE OF DISASTER: 17 counties, 200 miles of Colorado (north to south), 2,380 square milesCatastrophic flooding has affected 17 counties — an almost 200 mile stretch of Colorado from north to south and impacting at least 2,380 square miles — including: Boulder, El Paso, Larimer, Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Fremont, Jefferson, Logan, Morgan, Pueblo, Washington, Weld, Sedgewick, Otero and Archuelta counties.

I don’t still have the same thoughts when I wake up every morning now. I know we can’t go back to what it was like before the flood. It is part of our history that makes us who we are as individuals and a community today.

But still feel the same way as I described in my email a year ago. I recognize that each household was affected uniquely in Lyons. Today, I understand that to mean there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to flood recovery. I am still emotionally tied to the plight of friends and neighbors. Today and moving forward, that means I don’t want to give up searching for right tools to the address the multiple individual needs.

————–Amy Reinholds is a member of the Lyons Housing Recovery Task Force. She and her husband, Caleb Roberts, have lived in Lyons for 11 years and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995. She is a technical writer for IBM and a former reporter and freelance writer for the Colorado Daily and the Boulder Daily Camera.

Editor/Author of this blog

Amy Reinholds served on the Housing Recovery Task Force in Lyons, Colo., from December 2013 through its end in February 2015. She is currently a member of the Lyons Human Services and Aging Commission and served as a liaison to the Special Housing Committee during its existence from April 2015-April 2016. She has lived in Lyons since 2003 and in the surrounding Lyons area since 1995.